London has been battered by 50mph winds that have felled trees and caused travel chaos. Powerful gusts swept across the capital as the Met Office issued a yellow "be aware" weather alert for most of the country.

A mother has been jailed for the abuse of 10 children in her care in Haringey, the borough at the centre of the Baby P scandal.

She left the children starving, smelly, crawling with head lice and covered in ingrained dirt.

One child was so hungry that when a foster carer fed her she pressed the milk bottle hard against her mouth, leaving a red mark. The skin beneath her nappy was red-raw.

Police, who were alerted by a member of the public concerned about the children's condition and the "inappropriate" adult nature of their conversations, discovered rotten food in the home and cockroach infestation.

The abuse happened over four years, from 2005 to 2009. It will prompt renewed concerns about child protection standards in Haringey, where 17-month-old Peter Connelly - Baby P - died at the hands of his mother, her boyfriend and her lodger in 2007, despite 60 visits by social services, police and health professionals.

Haringey was also the borough where eight-year-old Victoria Climbié died in 2000 after being beaten and starved by her aunt and the aunt's boyfriend, who were jailed for life in 2001 for her murder. There were 128 injuries on her body.

An independent report heavily criticised Haringey for the failure of its social workers to protect Victoria.

The woman in the latest case, who cannot be identified, was sentenced to 18 months at Wood Green crown court after admitting child cruelty. The judge was told that a foster carer had to bath boys in the woman's care twice, as the water was so filthy after the first bath. The woman's former partner was jailed for five child cruelty offences. A serious case review is under way into the council's handling of the matter.

The disclosure came as the Crown Prosecution Service revealed a 66 per cent increase in the number of people charged with child cruelty in London last year.

Haringey council refused to say when social services first became aware of any concerns about the 10 children, or whether they were on the "at risk" register, claiming that it was unable to disclose the information for confidentiality reasons.

A spokesman said the handling of the case was being examined and the findings would be used by the council to "pull together lessons for future best practice". He insisted that the council, which was strongly criticised after another serious case review in 2008 into its handling of the Baby P case, was determined to ensure vulnerable children were protected.

He added: "The Local Safeguarding Children Board is content that our decision to pull together lessons for future best practice is right and that no other process is needed.

"We have made clear repeatedly since the 2008 serious case review that our commitment to providing the best possible vulnerable children's service is absolute. Central to that determination is a culture of continual learning - as acknowledged by Ofsted in successive reports."